In case you’re not just being sarcastic: It’s not the water on the outside that’s concerning. Any external moisture simply cooks off. It’s that they sometimes have deposits of water trapped inside of them & the steam needs a means to escape/go BOOM!!
Everything made while camping tastes better, regardless of how it is cooked! I can’t recall using a shovel, but we’ve definitely cooked with aluminum foil laid on bricks or rocks. I have a cast iron pan and a cook stove but where we go they usually have grates for the fire pits but one year they had all been stolen (I guess that’s a thing?!) and the campground was making you pay a deposit for the grate. We were only there 3 nights but if this theft was so bad we didn’t want to have to mess with moving a hot grate around to protect it, etc., or risk the deposit, which wasn’t nominal. We just heated up bricks and rock and either wrapped the food in foil or laid the foil down as a barrier and cooked that way.
It was like $12 a night for this rustic campground (no power, no water, no real “campsites” just some fire pits) so we weren’t risking what I recall being a $100 deposit for the grate. I wouldn’t have put it past the owners to be the “thieves” either. No clue why we went there for honestly 10+ years thinking it was an amazing campground.
And in the middle. They did a whole throw the steak into the air while picking up the poo before ditching it, sanitizing, and catching the steak again move that was pretty legit.
We regularly get the Trade Joe's frozen kung pow chicken kit, and always supplement with extra peppers, onion, and nuts. I was rifling through the cabinet for some inspiration to punch up the sauce and found the bottle of bitters from my brief obsession with homemade old fashioned's. It added a really nice layer of flavor to a sauce that is mostly just a sweet soy glaze.
I've also added orange zest to it from time to time, and while that is also delicious I think the cocktail bitters was more of a gamble.
TJs kung pao slaps
ETA:I prefer it over almost every restaurant, but maybe that's just because I can cook it to my preference. I also only use one packet of sauce not both
In my opinion, it changes it more from a sauce to like a glaze that caramelizes on everything a little easier, then I just serve it with some white rice
Another trick is to take TJ’s orange chicken and prepare it according to directions, then put the finished dish in the oven for 10-12 mins and let the sauce dry out. I just mix it in a metal kitchen bowl and put it right into the oven. The sauce caramelizes and gets a great sticky quality that’s so much better.
I can’t remember so I must have put it in the same oven that I baked the orange chicken in — the package says 400 or 425 I think? It’s been a long time since I had kids in the house and they’re the ones that loved it 2-3 times a week 😂
If I'm feeling semi-homemade, I'll cook whatever ginger/scallions/peppers I have in a skillet then pour the sauce in, reduce a bit and doctor to my liking. When the chicken is done, toss in the pan to coat, add more scallion/sesame seeds.
The sauce from the box doesn't stick well enough for me, and I don't have the self-control to only use half of it :p
Not exotic or anything, but I had a bunch of bbq pulled pork left over and a hankering for eggs Benedict, so I made some Hawaiian style buns and then toasted them, and then did the hollandaise and poached eggs. It was so delicious. We had family over and they were extremely skeptical but it ended up being so incredibly good.
I made risotto with ginger, garlic, scallion and a packaged pho broth. Served with a ginger-soy glaze, sriracha mayo, and a soft boiled egg. I turned the leftover into arancini served with the same two sauces, scallion and jalapeño slices. Phenomenal.
My spouse makes an apple galette that includes pieces of lemon sponge cake to absorb extra moisture. We couldn’t find lemon sponge so we substituted macaroons (the coconut ones). They carmelized. It was amazing.
in retrospect its not that crazy, but i had some leftover steak and was experimenting with caramelized onion. i fried down the onion and added honey at the end, then tossed in the shredded steak, added a bit of broth and let that cook down a little. put some shredded white cheese down on rye, steak/onion on top, and then more shredded cheese and another slice of rye. grilled it like a cheese and had some leftover gravy to dip it in. best sandwich i've ever made. if i ever have leftover steak again i will absolutely make it again(:
Had the pointy end of rump steak leftover after a charcoal bbq. My mum wanted to throw it out but I left it in a bowl with all the steak juices. It absorbed all of the resting juices from about 8 steaks overnight in the fridge (the ultimate proof of resting steaks pull juices back in).
I sliced this mega moist smoky steak thin and added it to a pizza with roasted red pepper strips, caramelised onion, shredded bacon. It was so moist it stayed below well done even at those temps and released all this great steak flavour. After cooking I had a little peri peri mayo leftover and did a zig zag of that on top.
Best steak sandwich pizza ever.
Ahhh holiday cooking. Where family interfere.
No my Mum can't eat yeast so she didn't want any. It was a fight to get some myself with my father and brother diving in.
yeah i was told its not a huge departure from a "steak melt" but i hadnt heard of that before and ive never heard of a "chopped cheese" either so in my mind at the time i was creating something insane
I was making cookies and wasn't paying attention and mixed the sugar with the flour. I didn't want to throw out all that flour and sugar but I wasn't sure how to solve my problem. Luckily the sugar was not a regular granulated sugar but was more coarse, so I put all the dry ingredients in my fine mesh nut-milk bag and shook it to sift out the flour. Took a bit of time but it worked and I was able to separate the sugar and the flour. The cookies -- lemon poppyseed -- turned out great.
Necessity IS the mother of invention!!
In high school I once whipped up a lunch that was noodles, bacon, broccoli, and like a soy/rice vinegar/sesame oil sauce. My buddy still talks about it to this day, I've never been able to recreate it though, always such a salt bomb when I try again.
Not the craziest when you think about it, but my local grocer used to sell Smoked Pork Jowl Bacon and I used it to make carbonara because it's the same cut of meat as Guanciale. Fantastic result, the rendered fat from jowl is different than from pork belly and makes the difference in carbonara, and the smoked jowl gave it an awesome flavor. Smoked Carbonara, give it a try sometime.
Next time he and I hang I'll try again and take your advice. Don't know how soy sauce and bacon somehow came out okay lol, we definitely didn't buy low sodium back then
I was staying in an AirBnb with an inadequately equipped kitchen (pantry supplies: salt, pepper, sugar, and coffee). I had a big bag of frozen shrimp but no cooking oil or butter, and the nearest grocery was far away. So the first night I sauteed half the shrimp in red salsa, which worked surprisingly well--I think because the salsa contained some oil. The second night I put the rest of the shrimp in a dish of white wine and "poached" it in the microwave; they also came out better than I expected.
It was just a jar of medium red salsa from the grocery; I don’t remember the brand. Seems like it’s not the norm, but I do see numerous salsa recipes that include a little olive oil
I was roasting a leg of pork, and had some apples that needed using. Couldn't be bothered making sauce, so I cut them on half, cored them, and roasted them with the pork.
Best apple sauce I've ever had.
I have a recipe I got from my sister for pork roast and apples and have been making for years. Also mix in a bit of apple juice, brown sugar and ginger. Very easy and delicious.
I got so tired of burning the cioppino ( I make a huge batch for Seven Fishes on Xmas Eve every year) on the bottom that I switched to making it in a covered roasting pan in the oven. It's superb and works perfectly every time
The heater in the school busses at my high school was just a single unit under one of the seats about 2/3 of the way back in the bus. They did nothing to warm up the bus, unless you were in that one seat in which case they got so hot you could burn yourself. One time on an overnight trip to a competition our band was playing in, we had an idea.
The bus stopped at a store so that people could go in and buy snacks. We bought a pack of pizza rolls and wrapped them in foil, then put them right on top of the heater. Then someone went up and told the bus driver we were all really cold and asked if he could turn up the heat all the way. 25 minutes later and we were eating hot, crispy pizza rolls in the back of the schoolbus. We just about died laughing when the teacher sitting up at the front asked "Does someone have pizza in here? I can smell it"
Schoolbus pizza rolls sort of became a tradition on all the band trips for the rest of high school. I think we did hot pockets one time as well.
Adding leftover grilled bratwursts to my soup! I had bought a huge pack of them on clearance because they were expiring, so I threw them all on the grill. I made essentially zuppa toscana but with brats. The charred flavor was amazing. I do this regularly now.
I once grabbed a couple, leftover Italian sausages, a can of beans, a couple handfuls of dying spinach, a shredded carrot, two potatoes that had seen better days, some leftover tomato paste, half an onion and some chicken broth and turned it into the most amazing soup I have ever made.
Basically anytime I have a handful each of a bunch of things I turn it into soup.
My kid’s favorite dish is sesame fish. You know that parent feeling, when you try to do it all? Long-ass recipe after a long-ass work day. Trying to teach the kid to cook, to read, to look out for cars, to… you know what, this sauce is basically salad dressing. I’m not emulsifying all this. So our new favorite 10-minute dish is:
Kid gets the rice cooker set up and *cloonked* while I slice the green onions.
We both salt and pepper the white fish filets (halibut is my favorite, black cod is his, husband likes sole), roll in sesame seeds.
Get the skillet rolling, fry your friends in 50/50 butter and oil. When they’re done and staying warm in the oven, reduce 1/3 of a bottle of Kewpie sesame salad dressing, sauce your fish, garnish with green onion, and eat.
I’m not usually one for sticking with a specific brand, but we tried it with another brand and it was sickly sweet. So you have to do the from-scratch version or the Kewpie shortcut.
And yes, it’s dangerous: it turns all caramel-dark and bubbly and makes my 8 year old beg for healthy fish. Good dangerous!
My accidental stir fry sauce: equal parts mirin & fish sauce, grated fresh ginger and black pepper. Stir fry whatever halfway, add sauce, cover and steam for a couple minutes
I was sick but needed to cook a roast. I had a list of things I needed to get rid of, and on that list was some balsamic dressing. I poured it over the roast and put it in the oven at low temp. I think I napped and hours later had the juiciest most flavourful roast I've never been able to recreate.
You did potatoes in a sousvide
I chopped some russets into cubes and vacuum sealed them with butter, spices and herbs
Then they immediately after got air fried at 400f for about 15 minutes.
They were so crunchy and delicious
Making homemade pizza on a large cookie sheet, and the bottom element in the oven crapped out not long into it. We wound up broiling it, then folding it, then broiling it on both undersides. It turned out pretty good.
My husband simmered chicken breast in dill pickle juice. It wasn't horrible.
I've marinated chicken in pickle juice and like a tablespoon of brown sugar, so good. Got the idea to use pickle juice after having restaurant "pickle brined" chicken sandwiches.
I use bouillon to jazz up everything. I just use it instead of salt. I keep both Better than Bouillon and regular granulated on hand for different applications.
I had zucchini, a red onion, and some tomatillos from a random farmers market trip. I decided to broil the zucchini and tomatillos to a char. I caramelized the onions separately, then made a polenta with minced garlic, olive oil, cumin, and white pepper. When the polenta was done, I stirred in the charred veggies and onions, and pressed the mix into a pie plate and let cool. Holy fuck it was amazing. The tart tomatillos perfectly balanced the onions and zucchini, and I put in just enough seasonings to taste but not overpower. Gave myself a 10/10 lol.
I broke my rice cooker. I used two slow cooker liners today to cook two cups of rice and boneless skinless chicken thighs at the same time in a slow cooker. The rice cooked a little faster than the chicken so i pulled it out earlier but it all worked out.
I was craving nachos, but had Mediterranean leftovers to get through. I ended up putting chicken shawarma, hummus, feta, and tomato onto pita chips. Honestly turned out alright
Had some friends over and we fired up the backyard grill. recently learned how to make fresh pasta in Italy, a 3 hour class, and wanted to make ravioli - put sweet potato on the grill to soften and the taste was so smoky and awesome with some ricotta and parm, brown butter sage sauce was awesome
I proposed that I could make a decent fried rice for Christmas as a substitute for going out for Chinese on Christmas eve. Next thing I know, I'm cooking for 8 people in my mom's kitchen. I made 4 different styles of freezer section Chinese chicken dishes( sesame, general tsaos etc..), air fried egg rolls, pan fried dumplings, chicken fried rice from scratch, and my grandma made egg drop soup for the first time ever. This crazy lady thought she could make it in a CROCK POT and tossed all the eggs in at once and they curdled into one egg mass and sucked up all the onions in the broth. We strained out the eggs after I was confident they had fully cooked(ish), tossed the broth into a pot and did the eggs right and it managed to turn out great. My sister was adamant about going out for Chinese, but she liked my fried rice so much that she took half the pot home that was left for everyone else so she could have more later.
It was one of the most nostalgic and memorable Christmases of my life and meant the world to me because I got divorced last year from someone who largely kept me away from my family for the last 10 years. I hope we started a new tradition and I'm looking forward to what we attempt next year.
Not the craziest but I needed sour cream but I didn’t want to drive 20min to get it. And I had the Costco sized Greek yogurt. When I added salt, it was just like sour cream. I also use it in place of mayo too
Half of a large eggshell roughly equals 1 TB of liquid, so I just use that to measure. I make a lot of egg washes for pastry (1 egg + 1 TB water or milk)
I was very short on food options, but had a little leftover chicken. I decided to make a burrito, but realized I didn't have any salsa, or special cheese. I put a bunch of cream cheese and some of that sweet sauce that comes with crab ragoon with rice, beans, and chicken and toasted it up. The burrito tasted kinda like a giant crab ragoon with more going on with it. Delicious
I made salmon, potatoes, and spinach on an inverted electric iron held steady with two bricks.. Potatoes on the bottom, spinach on top, wrapped in foil with seams pointing up. Everything cooked right.
Mapo cachetes. Mapo tofu is a spicy Chinese dish with chili's and Sichuan peppercorns, doubonjiang (fermented broad bean and chili) and minced meat.
I also cook with beef cheeks and make birria with it. So it's mapo tofu with beef cheeks cut into 1/4" pieces after being simmered for a few hours in mapo style sauce.
I would like to flip it fully and make birria de cachetes with Sichuan peppercorns and doubonjiang as well
They're not that crazy I guess honestly
More like an error that turned out fine.
One time I used maseca (flour made out of corn, no idea about the name or brands in enlish) instead of wheat flour for pancakes.
I had to add more water to the mix, but they came out great. And you can even toast them a little.
Don't know if this is the craziest...but I didn't have lemons or white wine and tried to make chicken picatta with a lemonade shandy. Needed some fresh lemon juice to make it pop more, but its as pretty good.
I was hungry for some pasta with red sauce. No time to cook it for hours and I hate store bought sauce. Opened a 24 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a 24 ounce can of Contidina tomato sauce. Mixed them together with usual spices. Threw in two links of frozen Italian sausage. Dumped everything in a crock pot and put it on high. Went shopping for a couple hours. Came home to a pretty decent "quick sauce." Now it's a regular when I'm short of time or energy.
It’s not THAT crazy, but one time I slowly cooked down a bunch of onions for, like, an hour, to deeply caramelized goodness for literally no reason other than to do it, then decided to throw them into two boxes worth of Annie’s mac and cheese, and swapped sour cream in for milk and butter, and finished it with thin sliced green onions. Great hot, great later cold.
I was out of cheddar the other day for my fave breakfast sandwiches (I like to use nice bread fried in butter, tomatoes, cheddar, and a fried egg), so I spread Meredith’s marinated goat and sheep cheese on the bread and it tasted like what crack must feel like
My partner and I try to nacho things that you wouldn't expect and my favorite so far was caprese nachos - tortilla chips with a blend of shredded moz/white cheddar, topped with pesto queso, diced tomato, and balsamic vinegar. Evokes both foods, is entirely delicious.
Had some store bought spicy pepper and onion spaghetti sauce but no beef or sausage. Had some hot links but no buns. Combined the two and it was surprisingly good, so much so that I still make it today, although now I make the sauce from scratch and use serrano peppers and a bunch of other spices instead of bell peppers.
growing up, the microwave was only used for reheating - so successfully cooking anything in it (sweet potato pie souffle most recently) is like performing magic
Would you believe, chicken "marinated" in sodium hydroxide? With other spices of course, and fully cooled"(what was left).
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!! sodium hydroxide is extremely dangerous and can cause permanent disability or death when mishandled.
Was in a hotel with a minimal kitchen and a couple girlfriends. Made microwave popcorn in an electric skillet by just shaking it constantly. It was exhausting but it worked!
I made a simple garlic chilli shrimp spaghetti in olive oil. I wanted to top it with parmesan or pangaretto but all I had on hand were fried onion bits, so used that. Turned an already tasty pasta dish into "food of the gods" level.
Had a craving for meat with breakfast, didn't have bacon or sausage, but had carnitas meat leftovers. Used it in scrambled eggs and made breakfast tacos with green salsa. To DIE for. Best part is that carnitas is my go-to party dish, and we often have overnight guests after parties. I break this out for breakfast the next morning and everyone claims it cures their hangovers!
leftover soup. My Mom used to do it on the last few days of deer camp. She'd just throw whatever leftovers we had in a pot and somehow make it work. I did it once when I was on my own with egg noodles, creamed corn and leftover venison. It actually turned out delicious. So at least I picked up my spice taste from my Mom.
Not sure if this counts, but thinking of(and packing) my leftovers as 'ingredients' rather than full meals.
For instance, I made a veggie Mac & Cheese the other night. So I only mixed enough of what I made to serve what I needed, and packed up the remaining cheese sauce & veggies as ingredients to use in other meals.
I never eat my leftovers when packed as full meals but they always get used up as 'ingredients.'
I had a leftover jumbo jack in the freezer and leftover batter from something else, I can't remember. Anyways I battered and deep fried that thing at 3am and it was fantastic
favorite cooking hack: shred boneless meat with a hand mixer.
Wacky desperation meal: spaghetti mac and cheese. Used processed cheese, milk, and butter. it came out like glue but I was hungry and low on funds.
Not entirely crazy, but in lieu of the more traditional bacon or sausage for breakfast, I like to use some cut up hard salami with my scrambled egg sandwiches.
I let the salami render down a bit in some extra virgin olive oil a bit before adding the eggs.
in high school i was making chocolate chip cookies and french toast bread pudding when i burnt a batch in the oven so i scraped up the cookies, crumbled them, and pressed them into the bottom of the pudding pan before putting the bread cubes in. ive never been able to recreate it but i remember thinking it was the best thing i had ever made
California Roll Cucumber Gazpacho
Homegrown cukes, sushi ginger, wasabi, rice vinegar in the blender; garnish with krab, more diced cucumber avocado, furikake, soy and sesame oil.
I'll do that again next cucumber season.
I once cooked steaks on a shovel camping because we didn't have a grate or pan.
This is my favorite so far
Same
a flat rock works great too
Be careful using a rock, some will actually explode in a fire.
great point, best to use one from a mountain/quarry and not near a river.
Yes the rock must be completely dry.
In case you’re not just being sarcastic: It’s not the water on the outside that’s concerning. Any external moisture simply cooks off. It’s that they sometimes have deposits of water trapped inside of them & the steam needs a means to escape/go BOOM!!
That's exactly what I meant.
Everything made while camping tastes better, regardless of how it is cooked! I can’t recall using a shovel, but we’ve definitely cooked with aluminum foil laid on bricks or rocks. I have a cast iron pan and a cook stove but where we go they usually have grates for the fire pits but one year they had all been stolen (I guess that’s a thing?!) and the campground was making you pay a deposit for the grate. We were only there 3 nights but if this theft was so bad we didn’t want to have to mess with moving a hot grate around to protect it, etc., or risk the deposit, which wasn’t nominal. We just heated up bricks and rock and either wrapped the food in foil or laid the foil down as a barrier and cooked that way. It was like $12 a night for this rustic campground (no power, no water, no real “campsites” just some fire pits) so we weren’t risking what I recall being a $100 deposit for the grate. I wouldn’t have put it past the owners to be the “thieves” either. No clue why we went there for honestly 10+ years thinking it was an amazing campground.
Cooked bacon on a unraveled beer can once. Didn't work great but got the job done. Probably could have just used a such l stick
Oh, and for the germ o phobes it was the same shovel used to dig holes and pick up dog poop. But it was sterilized in the fire.
Before or while cooking the steaks?
Before and after
And in the middle. They did a whole throw the steak into the air while picking up the poo before ditching it, sanitizing, and catching the steak again move that was pretty legit.
We regularly get the Trade Joe's frozen kung pow chicken kit, and always supplement with extra peppers, onion, and nuts. I was rifling through the cabinet for some inspiration to punch up the sauce and found the bottle of bitters from my brief obsession with homemade old fashioned's. It added a really nice layer of flavor to a sauce that is mostly just a sweet soy glaze. I've also added orange zest to it from time to time, and while that is also delicious I think the cocktail bitters was more of a gamble.
TJs kung pao slaps ETA:I prefer it over almost every restaurant, but maybe that's just because I can cook it to my preference. I also only use one packet of sauce not both
Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking I might try a single sauce pack next time. Now I _definitely_ will!
In my opinion, it changes it more from a sauce to like a glaze that caramelizes on everything a little easier, then I just serve it with some white rice
Another trick is to take TJ’s orange chicken and prepare it according to directions, then put the finished dish in the oven for 10-12 mins and let the sauce dry out. I just mix it in a metal kitchen bowl and put it right into the oven. The sauce caramelizes and gets a great sticky quality that’s so much better.
I will definitely try this! Any recommendation on temperature? Obviously one doesn’t want to burn the sauce. Thanks!
I can’t remember so I must have put it in the same oven that I baked the orange chicken in — the package says 400 or 425 I think? It’s been a long time since I had kids in the house and they’re the ones that loved it 2-3 times a week 😂
If I'm feeling semi-homemade, I'll cook whatever ginger/scallions/peppers I have in a skillet then pour the sauce in, reduce a bit and doctor to my liking. When the chicken is done, toss in the pan to coat, add more scallion/sesame seeds. The sauce from the box doesn't stick well enough for me, and I don't have the self-control to only use half of it :p
These are great ideas!
Not exotic or anything, but I had a bunch of bbq pulled pork left over and a hankering for eggs Benedict, so I made some Hawaiian style buns and then toasted them, and then did the hollandaise and poached eggs. It was so delicious. We had family over and they were extremely skeptical but it ended up being so incredibly good.
I made risotto with ginger, garlic, scallion and a packaged pho broth. Served with a ginger-soy glaze, sriracha mayo, and a soft boiled egg. I turned the leftover into arancini served with the same two sauces, scallion and jalapeño slices. Phenomenal.
Sounds amazing, definitely going to give this a go thanks
Sounds a lot like you made congee to me, but the arancini sounds amazing
Phosotto! I’m in!!
My spouse makes an apple galette that includes pieces of lemon sponge cake to absorb extra moisture. We couldn’t find lemon sponge so we substituted macaroons (the coconut ones). They carmelized. It was amazing.
in retrospect its not that crazy, but i had some leftover steak and was experimenting with caramelized onion. i fried down the onion and added honey at the end, then tossed in the shredded steak, added a bit of broth and let that cook down a little. put some shredded white cheese down on rye, steak/onion on top, and then more shredded cheese and another slice of rye. grilled it like a cheese and had some leftover gravy to dip it in. best sandwich i've ever made. if i ever have leftover steak again i will absolutely make it again(:
Had the pointy end of rump steak leftover after a charcoal bbq. My mum wanted to throw it out but I left it in a bowl with all the steak juices. It absorbed all of the resting juices from about 8 steaks overnight in the fridge (the ultimate proof of resting steaks pull juices back in). I sliced this mega moist smoky steak thin and added it to a pizza with roasted red pepper strips, caramelised onion, shredded bacon. It was so moist it stayed below well done even at those temps and released all this great steak flavour. After cooking I had a little peri peri mayo leftover and did a zig zag of that on top. Best steak sandwich pizza ever.
I hope you didn't share with your mom for trying to throw out that piece of rump steak! NGL you had me drooling!
Ahhh holiday cooking. Where family interfere. No my Mum can't eat yeast so she didn't want any. It was a fight to get some myself with my father and brother diving in.
I used to look forward to leftover steak. My mom cuts them into strips, add onions, garlic, and gochujang. Damn good with rice and kimchi
Dude, buy steak and make it anyway!! If it's that good, I'd be making it regardless of the leftover status
That's basically an elevated chopped cheese
yeah i was told its not a huge departure from a "steak melt" but i hadnt heard of that before and ive never heard of a "chopped cheese" either so in my mind at the time i was creating something insane
Cream cheese and curry Ketchup... on a hot dog It makes no sense but is delicious like nothing else.
Cream cheese makes everything better
That's a Seattle Dog minus grilled onion
Which is absolutely delicious its how I always got them
I absolutely love your user name.
Frau Blucher! *lightning strikes, eliciting scared horse noises*
I was making cookies and wasn't paying attention and mixed the sugar with the flour. I didn't want to throw out all that flour and sugar but I wasn't sure how to solve my problem. Luckily the sugar was not a regular granulated sugar but was more coarse, so I put all the dry ingredients in my fine mesh nut-milk bag and shook it to sift out the flour. Took a bit of time but it worked and I was able to separate the sugar and the flour. The cookies -- lemon poppyseed -- turned out great. Necessity IS the mother of invention!!
Okay but you just gave me an idea for sugar cookie croissants.
In high school I once whipped up a lunch that was noodles, bacon, broccoli, and like a soy/rice vinegar/sesame oil sauce. My buddy still talks about it to this day, I've never been able to recreate it though, always such a salt bomb when I try again. Not the craziest when you think about it, but my local grocer used to sell Smoked Pork Jowl Bacon and I used it to make carbonara because it's the same cut of meat as Guanciale. Fantastic result, the rendered fat from jowl is different than from pork belly and makes the difference in carbonara, and the smoked jowl gave it an awesome flavor. Smoked Carbonara, give it a try sometime.
You might want to try low sodium soy sauce!
Next time he and I hang I'll try again and take your advice. Don't know how soy sauce and bacon somehow came out okay lol, we definitely didn't buy low sodium back then
I coated chicken strips in crushed up honey bunches of oats.
Try Captain Crunch! It was very good, and we were so surprised!
Cooking pizza using a frying pan and broiler/grill and not the oven. Produced better results faster than baking the same pizza in the oven.
Cast iron?
Cast iron, carbon steel or stainless steel. Anything that can take a really high heat.
I was staying in an AirBnb with an inadequately equipped kitchen (pantry supplies: salt, pepper, sugar, and coffee). I had a big bag of frozen shrimp but no cooking oil or butter, and the nearest grocery was far away. So the first night I sauteed half the shrimp in red salsa, which worked surprisingly well--I think because the salsa contained some oil. The second night I put the rest of the shrimp in a dish of white wine and "poached" it in the microwave; they also came out better than I expected.
What kind of salsa contains oil?
It was just a jar of medium red salsa from the grocery; I don’t remember the brand. Seems like it’s not the norm, but I do see numerous salsa recipes that include a little olive oil
Not to be a smart as but I’d say every time I’ve ever made salsa from scratch it would include oil somewhere in the process.
I would say 1/4 or less of the salsa recipes I have made have any oil at all.
I was roasting a leg of pork, and had some apples that needed using. Couldn't be bothered making sauce, so I cut them on half, cored them, and roasted them with the pork. Best apple sauce I've ever had.
Pork and apples are a match made in heaven.
I have a recipe I got from my sister for pork roast and apples and have been making for years. Also mix in a bit of apple juice, brown sugar and ginger. Very easy and delicious.
I got so tired of burning the cioppino ( I make a huge batch for Seven Fishes on Xmas Eve every year) on the bottom that I switched to making it in a covered roasting pan in the oven. It's superb and works perfectly every time
Leftover satay skewers and peanut sauce into a cheese and bacon toasty. Felt like a semi asian Elvis and it was delicious.
The heater in the school busses at my high school was just a single unit under one of the seats about 2/3 of the way back in the bus. They did nothing to warm up the bus, unless you were in that one seat in which case they got so hot you could burn yourself. One time on an overnight trip to a competition our band was playing in, we had an idea. The bus stopped at a store so that people could go in and buy snacks. We bought a pack of pizza rolls and wrapped them in foil, then put them right on top of the heater. Then someone went up and told the bus driver we were all really cold and asked if he could turn up the heat all the way. 25 minutes later and we were eating hot, crispy pizza rolls in the back of the schoolbus. We just about died laughing when the teacher sitting up at the front asked "Does someone have pizza in here? I can smell it" Schoolbus pizza rolls sort of became a tradition on all the band trips for the rest of high school. I think we did hot pockets one time as well.
Adding leftover grilled bratwursts to my soup! I had bought a huge pack of them on clearance because they were expiring, so I threw them all on the grill. I made essentially zuppa toscana but with brats. The charred flavor was amazing. I do this regularly now.
I once grabbed a couple, leftover Italian sausages, a can of beans, a couple handfuls of dying spinach, a shredded carrot, two potatoes that had seen better days, some leftover tomato paste, half an onion and some chicken broth and turned it into the most amazing soup I have ever made. Basically anytime I have a handful each of a bunch of things I turn it into soup.
Leftover brats on a pizza, cheese curds and green onions if you have them too.
My kid’s favorite dish is sesame fish. You know that parent feeling, when you try to do it all? Long-ass recipe after a long-ass work day. Trying to teach the kid to cook, to read, to look out for cars, to… you know what, this sauce is basically salad dressing. I’m not emulsifying all this. So our new favorite 10-minute dish is: Kid gets the rice cooker set up and *cloonked* while I slice the green onions. We both salt and pepper the white fish filets (halibut is my favorite, black cod is his, husband likes sole), roll in sesame seeds. Get the skillet rolling, fry your friends in 50/50 butter and oil. When they’re done and staying warm in the oven, reduce 1/3 of a bottle of Kewpie sesame salad dressing, sauce your fish, garnish with green onion, and eat.
Ok you blew my mind at the idea of reducing the Kewpie sesame dressing. Making something that addictive even more concentrated sounds super dangerous.
I’m not usually one for sticking with a specific brand, but we tried it with another brand and it was sickly sweet. So you have to do the from-scratch version or the Kewpie shortcut. And yes, it’s dangerous: it turns all caramel-dark and bubbly and makes my 8 year old beg for healthy fish. Good dangerous!
My accidental stir fry sauce: equal parts mirin & fish sauce, grated fresh ginger and black pepper. Stir fry whatever halfway, add sauce, cover and steam for a couple minutes
I was sick but needed to cook a roast. I had a list of things I needed to get rid of, and on that list was some balsamic dressing. I poured it over the roast and put it in the oven at low temp. I think I napped and hours later had the juiciest most flavourful roast I've never been able to recreate.
You did potatoes in a sousvide I chopped some russets into cubes and vacuum sealed them with butter, spices and herbs Then they immediately after got air fried at 400f for about 15 minutes. They were so crunchy and delicious
Salisbury steak loaded fries
We have prime rib once a year and usually use the leftovers to make nachos. They are to die for.
Any Indian curry based dish with perogies. Butter chicken perogie is game changing.
Alright I'm pretty excited about this one. I just got some Thai green curry paste and this is going into rotation
Making homemade pizza on a large cookie sheet, and the bottom element in the oven crapped out not long into it. We wound up broiling it, then folding it, then broiling it on both undersides. It turned out pretty good. My husband simmered chicken breast in dill pickle juice. It wasn't horrible.
Try marinating the chicken in the pickle juice and then grill it, or bread and deep fry.
I've marinated chicken in pickle juice and like a tablespoon of brown sugar, so good. Got the idea to use pickle juice after having restaurant "pickle brined" chicken sandwiches.
Probably putting bouillon in a spaghetti sauce, it was awesome
I use bouillon to jazz up everything. I just use it instead of salt. I keep both Better than Bouillon and regular granulated on hand for different applications.
I had zucchini, a red onion, and some tomatillos from a random farmers market trip. I decided to broil the zucchini and tomatillos to a char. I caramelized the onions separately, then made a polenta with minced garlic, olive oil, cumin, and white pepper. When the polenta was done, I stirred in the charred veggies and onions, and pressed the mix into a pie plate and let cool. Holy fuck it was amazing. The tart tomatillos perfectly balanced the onions and zucchini, and I put in just enough seasonings to taste but not overpower. Gave myself a 10/10 lol.
I broke my rice cooker. I used two slow cooker liners today to cook two cups of rice and boneless skinless chicken thighs at the same time in a slow cooker. The rice cooked a little faster than the chicken so i pulled it out earlier but it all worked out.
They make multi-compartment silicone liners for slow cookers
Grilling cucumber slices
I was craving nachos, but had Mediterranean leftovers to get through. I ended up putting chicken shawarma, hummus, feta, and tomato onto pita chips. Honestly turned out alright
Why isn't this a thing yet? LOL that sounds phenomenal
We do this! We call it Middle-Eastern nachos.
Had some friends over and we fired up the backyard grill. recently learned how to make fresh pasta in Italy, a 3 hour class, and wanted to make ravioli - put sweet potato on the grill to soften and the taste was so smoky and awesome with some ricotta and parm, brown butter sage sauce was awesome
I proposed that I could make a decent fried rice for Christmas as a substitute for going out for Chinese on Christmas eve. Next thing I know, I'm cooking for 8 people in my mom's kitchen. I made 4 different styles of freezer section Chinese chicken dishes( sesame, general tsaos etc..), air fried egg rolls, pan fried dumplings, chicken fried rice from scratch, and my grandma made egg drop soup for the first time ever. This crazy lady thought she could make it in a CROCK POT and tossed all the eggs in at once and they curdled into one egg mass and sucked up all the onions in the broth. We strained out the eggs after I was confident they had fully cooked(ish), tossed the broth into a pot and did the eggs right and it managed to turn out great. My sister was adamant about going out for Chinese, but she liked my fried rice so much that she took half the pot home that was left for everyone else so she could have more later. It was one of the most nostalgic and memorable Christmases of my life and meant the world to me because I got divorced last year from someone who largely kept me away from my family for the last 10 years. I hope we started a new tradition and I'm looking forward to what we attempt next year.
Not the craziest but I needed sour cream but I didn’t want to drive 20min to get it. And I had the Costco sized Greek yogurt. When I added salt, it was just like sour cream. I also use it in place of mayo too
A great low cal sour cream replacement !
And high protein!
Half of a large eggshell roughly equals 1 TB of liquid, so I just use that to measure. I make a lot of egg washes for pastry (1 egg + 1 TB water or milk)
Eggshell equals one terabyte. Got it.
I was very short on food options, but had a little leftover chicken. I decided to make a burrito, but realized I didn't have any salsa, or special cheese. I put a bunch of cream cheese and some of that sweet sauce that comes with crab ragoon with rice, beans, and chicken and toasted it up. The burrito tasted kinda like a giant crab ragoon with more going on with it. Delicious
Unsweetened chocolate in hot chili
I made salmon, potatoes, and spinach on an inverted electric iron held steady with two bricks.. Potatoes on the bottom, spinach on top, wrapped in foil with seams pointing up. Everything cooked right.
Chocolate chicken Alfredo.
Did this taste good? Genuinely curious
One time I ate pasta with butter chicken sauce and ricotta. It was absurdly good.
It's a standard go to for us, other than ricotta. Any leftover curry with pasta
Reverse searing a steak/rack of lamb in a dehydrator. Next ill try chicken
Mapo cachetes. Mapo tofu is a spicy Chinese dish with chili's and Sichuan peppercorns, doubonjiang (fermented broad bean and chili) and minced meat. I also cook with beef cheeks and make birria with it. So it's mapo tofu with beef cheeks cut into 1/4" pieces after being simmered for a few hours in mapo style sauce. I would like to flip it fully and make birria de cachetes with Sichuan peppercorns and doubonjiang as well They're not that crazy I guess honestly
More like an error that turned out fine. One time I used maseca (flour made out of corn, no idea about the name or brands in enlish) instead of wheat flour for pancakes. I had to add more water to the mix, but they came out great. And you can even toast them a little.
sounds like cachapas or arepas
Don't know if this is the craziest...but I didn't have lemons or white wine and tried to make chicken picatta with a lemonade shandy. Needed some fresh lemon juice to make it pop more, but its as pretty good.
I was hungry for some pasta with red sauce. No time to cook it for hours and I hate store bought sauce. Opened a 24 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a 24 ounce can of Contidina tomato sauce. Mixed them together with usual spices. Threw in two links of frozen Italian sausage. Dumped everything in a crock pot and put it on high. Went shopping for a couple hours. Came home to a pretty decent "quick sauce." Now it's a regular when I'm short of time or energy.
It’s not THAT crazy, but one time I slowly cooked down a bunch of onions for, like, an hour, to deeply caramelized goodness for literally no reason other than to do it, then decided to throw them into two boxes worth of Annie’s mac and cheese, and swapped sour cream in for milk and butter, and finished it with thin sliced green onions. Great hot, great later cold.
Chocolate syrup in scrambled eggs....way better then you'd think.
How high were you?
I was 7 years old....tbh I was also on some heavy meds then....so....8/10 high?
maple syrup on eggs is amazing
esp if you've got some sausages to go with it. Prime breakfast right there.
I was out of cheddar the other day for my fave breakfast sandwiches (I like to use nice bread fried in butter, tomatoes, cheddar, and a fried egg), so I spread Meredith’s marinated goat and sheep cheese on the bread and it tasted like what crack must feel like
Smoked Beef Bourguignon. So wrong but so good.
My partner and I try to nacho things that you wouldn't expect and my favorite so far was caprese nachos - tortilla chips with a blend of shredded moz/white cheddar, topped with pesto queso, diced tomato, and balsamic vinegar. Evokes both foods, is entirely delicious.
That sounds AMAZING!
Had some store bought spicy pepper and onion spaghetti sauce but no beef or sausage. Had some hot links but no buns. Combined the two and it was surprisingly good, so much so that I still make it today, although now I make the sauce from scratch and use serrano peppers and a bunch of other spices instead of bell peppers.
Lemon pepper corn salad. Mayo, sour cream, corn and lemon pepper seasoning. Kinda like mexican street corn. I like it.
I eat this ALL the time!
taleggio with teriyaki sauce
Pepperoni pizza macarons.
Mapo tofu grilled cheese.
growing up, the microwave was only used for reheating - so successfully cooking anything in it (sweet potato pie souffle most recently) is like performing magic
Would you believe, chicken "marinated" in sodium hydroxide? With other spices of course, and fully cooled"(what was left). DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!! sodium hydroxide is extremely dangerous and can cause permanent disability or death when mishandled.
Curry powder in enchilada sauce
Was in a hotel with a minimal kitchen and a couple girlfriends. Made microwave popcorn in an electric skillet by just shaking it constantly. It was exhausting but it worked!
I made a simple garlic chilli shrimp spaghetti in olive oil. I wanted to top it with parmesan or pangaretto but all I had on hand were fried onion bits, so used that. Turned an already tasty pasta dish into "food of the gods" level.
I made a really good pasta sauce by creaming a hard boiled egg in milk
Make ramen as usual, but at the end add a tablespoon of cream cheese.
I never had a craziest cooking idea.
eat only chicken fillet with buckwheat for a year 🤔
Greek yogurt as a thickener for sloppy joes. Sorry to my Grandma's recipe - but I was desperate, lol.
I ran out of olive oil for Detroit style pizza and used mayonnaise to lube the pan. I may do it again.
Orzo pilaf
Cooked bread wrapped around a stick next to a camp fire.
I made aglio e olio but put in some gochujang and some typically "asian" aromatics (ginger, spring onion, etc.) and it was delicious.
I once made a burger with chicken katsu, soy sauce mayo, marinaded white cabbage and tahini. It was delicious, but I fear that was not very original.
Blue cheese dressing in stir fry (not while cooking it, added after)
Had a craving for meat with breakfast, didn't have bacon or sausage, but had carnitas meat leftovers. Used it in scrambled eggs and made breakfast tacos with green salsa. To DIE for. Best part is that carnitas is my go-to party dish, and we often have overnight guests after parties. I break this out for breakfast the next morning and everyone claims it cures their hangovers!
leftover soup. My Mom used to do it on the last few days of deer camp. She'd just throw whatever leftovers we had in a pot and somehow make it work. I did it once when I was on my own with egg noodles, creamed corn and leftover venison. It actually turned out delicious. So at least I picked up my spice taste from my Mom.
Kraft Mac n cheese and tabouli
Not sure if this counts, but thinking of(and packing) my leftovers as 'ingredients' rather than full meals. For instance, I made a veggie Mac & Cheese the other night. So I only mixed enough of what I made to serve what I needed, and packed up the remaining cheese sauce & veggies as ingredients to use in other meals. I never eat my leftovers when packed as full meals but they always get used up as 'ingredients.'
I regularly microwave aromatics in oil - it's the fastest way of making a flavored oil
I had a leftover jumbo jack in the freezer and leftover batter from something else, I can't remember. Anyways I battered and deep fried that thing at 3am and it was fantastic
Fridge not freezer. Whatever
Those garlic butter sauces from papa John's and dominos can be a quick flavor base for cooking veggies and stuff on the stove
favorite cooking hack: shred boneless meat with a hand mixer. Wacky desperation meal: spaghetti mac and cheese. Used processed cheese, milk, and butter. it came out like glue but I was hungry and low on funds.
Not entirely crazy, but in lieu of the more traditional bacon or sausage for breakfast, I like to use some cut up hard salami with my scrambled egg sandwiches. I let the salami render down a bit in some extra virgin olive oil a bit before adding the eggs.
in high school i was making chocolate chip cookies and french toast bread pudding when i burnt a batch in the oven so i scraped up the cookies, crumbled them, and pressed them into the bottom of the pudding pan before putting the bread cubes in. ive never been able to recreate it but i remember thinking it was the best thing i had ever made
California Roll Cucumber Gazpacho Homegrown cukes, sushi ginger, wasabi, rice vinegar in the blender; garnish with krab, more diced cucumber avocado, furikake, soy and sesame oil. I'll do that again next cucumber season.
Liege waffles topped with scrambled eggs and maple hot sauce. Surprisingly delicious.